Chapter 223:

With [Spiderman] holding onto its unrivaled domination at the Box Office, even at the end of its sixth week in the cinemas, the Dream Vision MeTube account released extra content related to Spider-Man on their channel. Bloopers, unreleased footage, and Comic Book commentary videos by Stan Lee. Many such footage were released, and they pushed [Spiderman] into the billion-dollar film category.

People also widely shared a video of Stan Lee’s thoughts on the character on various social media platforms.

“If you have an idea you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.” He said in one of the most famous videos released by Dream Vision. “Now, that doesn’t mean that every wild notion you come up with is gonna be genius. But…. If there is something that you feel is good…something that you want to do…something that means something to you…try to do it. Because I think you can only do your best work if you’re doing what ‘YOU’ want to do. And if you’re doing it the way you think it should be done. Just do your thing. Do it as well as you can…. That’s the important thing. Don’t shirk. Whatever you do, give it your best shot. You will be glad you did it. I learned that the hard way. EXCELSIOR!”

Many videos were released, and due to their popularity, Dream Vision’s MeTube account garnered over 5 million subscribers and the views on these videos kept increasing.

In just three days, it had over 10 million views.

***

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it, Will?” Jeffery asked as he admired the shiny golden trophy that was adorned on the shelf inside his office.

Will sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, for the fifth time, Jeffery. It is wonderful,” He commented, “What I want to know is why you’ve brought it back to your office. I thought you took it home, as I did mine.”

Jeffery looked bashful and averted his eyes. He mumbled, “I-I may or may not have slept with the trophy on my bed for two nights, and Emilia couldn’t handle it anymore. It was either here or in the garbage bag for it. I had no other choice.”

Will chuckled at the revelation, “It’s just a trophy, Jeff.”

“No, no! It’s my greatest achievement!” Jeffery was quick to defend the trophy.

Will figured he could understand the sentiment, even though he somewhat disagreed. In his previous reality, the Oscars had lost their relevance, and he found them too cumbersome to care for. Despite having won a trophy, he knew that this resulted from popular opinion and his career trajectory was what it had been since his debut.

The academy generally isn’t so quick to grant awards to films and deserving art projects. Not without significant connections in academia itself. The Oscars in this world though were very much a big deal, and so Jeffery’s reaction was quite understandable.

Just as Will sat down, Alexia came in carrying the latest editions of SPACE Magazine alongside Vanity Magazine.

She quickly took her to leave, and Will noticed that the magazines’ covers featured Will and Jeffery standing back-to-back with an Oscar shadowing them in the background. And on top of the Oscar Statue was a picture of Andrew in his Spider-Man costume, perched as he watched them both.

This was a subtle way that Will had formulated to promote [Spiderman] using his Oscar win in famous magazines.

Jeffery joked, looking at the magazines that featured him, “I don’t think Emilia will mind these.”

It had been a long time since Will had done any interviews, and he dreaded the inevitable calls he would be fielding asking for them. Then, just as he was about to comment on that inevitability, his phone started ringing.

*Todo todo .. todotodotodo todo todoooooo todo todo*

It was a call from his Uncle Ben, and he wondered whether he missed a meeting or something because he was one of the few people that would just walk up to his office nowadays.

Answering the call, the urgent tone of his Uncle immediately set him on edge.

“Will, we have a problem.”

***

Murphy’s law states that ‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst time possible.’ Will should have known that this was inevitable.

While Will was busy focusing on [Spiderman] and the Oscars, the ICM had managed to poach Benjamin Scott, the actor who played Joey Tribbiani in [Friends], from DTA.

And now, due to the exit clause from DTA nullifying the actor’s contract for [Friends], the ICM was asking for a thirty percent increase in fees for the actor to continue for the next two seasons of the show.

The first season had already aired, and while the initial reception was about as good as Will had expected, he was still dissatisfied with the show’s numbers.

And to make matters worse, the ICM had managed to poach a good 3 to 5 percent of the smaller actors as well from their talent agency, and Benjamin Scott was the first big actor to leave. Will needed to get a handle on the situation before it blew out of proportion, and after musing for a while, he decided it was a good chance for him to set up an example.

If he let it be, then other actors would be dissatisfied with their payments, and some would even think that they could get away with it, too, if Benjamin could.

Poaching in the agency market was very common. Many actors will get poached by different agencies if the latter see value in them.

As DTA was making stars left and right, it was inevitable that other agencies would try to get their hands on them. And, from Robert to Andrew, they have been attempting to poach everyone.

Even Jenkins agency has done the same thing, trying to entice his actors, but until now, no big name left, hoping to get a big role with Will Evans himself.

But if Benjamin had left, it could make other actors leave too. So it was a massive problem that he needed to deal with.

He called Amanda using his office telecom, and when she answered her machine, he immediately said, “I need public response charts of Benjamin Scott and [Friends] in my office by yesterday!”

Amanda, who had recognized the urgency and calm fury behind his voice, replied, “Sending them your way now.”

Will cut the call and pondered what sort of response he could give to the ICM. His musings were cut short as Amanda walked into his office, carrying a file with said document.

“Thank you, Amanda. Please, take a seat.” He said as warmly as he could manage.

Flipping through the files, he furrowed his brows. Then, leaning back in his chair, he sighed and looked at Amanda.

“I think it’s time we plug the openings in our company. Vultures had already started feeding off our company when we were busy. We need to head to the DTA office.” He said.

Amanda knew exactly what he was talking about and replied, “I think I may have a few ideas. Let’s go. I will have Alexia prep the car.”

***

“My client would like to stay with the cast of [FRIENDS] for however long Dream Vision intends to continue with the series. But, at the same time, we believe that for an actor of his calibre, the price accepted when he was under the DTA’s management is too low for him. Therefore, we would like to renegotiate the terms.” The agent that the ICM had assigned to Benjamin said as they started the meeting.

Jennifer, representing DTA, and Dream Vision, sat alongside Will and Amanda and glanced at the actor, as mentioned earlier, who looked a little smug about the whole situation. She replied frostily, “Why would we renegotiate the price? ICM had agreed upon a three-season contract, and we had added the exit clause in good faith. What are your demands? We will see if they are agreeable.”

The agent completely ignored the insult at the company’s honour and said, “We believe this much increase is a fair demand, considering Mr Scott’s talents and new-found value as an actor. So, 40,000 Dollars per episode is what we want him to continue work in the show.”

In contrast, the original cast was paid around 25000 Dollars per episode for each actor of the show, and Will had decided to start them off with a 30,000 Dollar asking price as he knew the overall worth of the show, and he wanted to provide them with a good incentive to remain with the DTA, and as cast members of the show. But, clearly, that didn’t work for all of them.

“Why do you think your client deserved that much money?”

Will asked straightforwardly, looking into the eyes of Benjamin, who felt a chill seeing those cold eyes.

The agent quickly responded to that.

“It’s very simple. The show’s popularity is very high, and it was one of the top three watched shows on RBO last year, and it is expected to top this year. So don’t you think 40,000 isn’t a lot of money if that’s the case?”

“Other actors aren’t getting—”

Jennifer tried to speak but was cut off by the agent.

“I believe my client is special and deserves it.”

When he said that, Will couldn’t help but laugh about it. Gesturing to Amanda, he opened his mouth.

“I know how special your client is. Amanda, show them the charts.”

…

//DreamNote//

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